REMINDER AND UPDATE: Five hidden posts and you can't post

Back in September, we announced some changes to the way the site is run. In that announcement, we promised that we would make the following change, after a 90-day period:

If you have five hidden posts on your account you will be unable to post.... If you have five hidden posts showing on your Transparency page (a 90-day period), then you will be temporarily unable to post. In order to regain your ability to post, you will need to wait until the oldest post of the five is more than 90 days old and "falls off" of your record. At that point you will only have four posts showing on your Transparency page, and you will regain your ability to post.

Due to a fluke of scheduling, that new policy was supposed to go into effect on December 25, Christmas Day. However, because the DU Administrators do not wish to spend our holiday break fixing the inevitable bugs, we have decided to push back the launch date.

The new launch date is Monday January 6, 2014.

Members whose transparency pages are showing will be restricted in the following ways: 1) they can't post, 2) they can't serve on juries, 3) they can't serve as hosts in forums or groups, and 4) they can't serve on the Malicious Intruder Removal Team. If they are currently assigned as a host or as a MIRT member, they will be removed by the software.

Members whose transparency pages are showing will not be restricted in any other ways. They will be able to send and receive DU Mail. They will be able to recommend threads. They will even be able to send alerts (this is so people can't insult people who are temporarily blocked).

76. Not in real life -

Better watch out - or you'll rack up enough new hides to be banished for another 90 days - of course, the good news would be that they're all in a very short period of time so they would drop off quickly.

Who you callin' Toad, anyway???

Enjoy your break - it will be a bit shorter than anticipated, at least!

137. You too

67. Some Fluke

Bah Humbug 5 seems awfully small unless it's 5 hidden posts in a week. I know I've been I was um juried once (no appeals court here) for um a mistake on the main page that let an atheist only page get there so naturally I responded. and that got ugly real fast. Not like I just go seek out the Atheist only section and post something nasty. It showed up on the main page and I responded to that. which is why I was against the Jury system for over a year. I changed my mind at some point this year. Now I'm watching The Hogfather. Happy Hogswatch

94. Yeah, me too! I saw it, started reading it wondered WTF did I do, none even told

107. I need help with this. What is a "hidden post?" and what is a "transparency page?"

Does this mean if I hide someone's post or does it mean if five people hide my posts? I know, it seems simple to folks who are familiar with the issue but I don't understand the meaning of the phrases. Thanks.

5. thanks for the updates and mild reprieve :D

also, it was informative to see the ATA discussion (somewhat spurred by post on GD about how to calculate 90 days from any date....) and to see just how few of us have run afoul of the transparency page threshold.

7. which brings me to a question. in sept i had NO hidden posts. since your new rule i have 6. when

there is actual repercussions with a hide. this morning alone i have had different duers send me three alert results, for three posts. that is just this morning. the last couple days i am having duers all around send me alert results.

how hard do you think it is going to be to find four jurors that do not like me? not cause i am uncivil. or name calling. but simply for the fact they do not like what i say. you are behind the scenes. you can see if there is a concerted effort to get particular duers kicked off du. i hope you take this into consideration.

97. yea

116. That is a lot in a short amount of time

No judging. I've never had a problem with you that I know of (unless it was in a different life). At least the pushback of the date gets you a few extra days. If you don't get another one you'll be back in late Jan with only 3. We'll still be here waiting for you (and I mean that in a nice way).

118. thank you. i had 3 alerts this morning that i know of cause people sent me the results. how many

alerts have i had today, that i did not receive a heads up? as i said, i am controversial. i am a small minority on du, though a very progressive stance and we are on a democratic board.

i am not well liked by many. all that is needed is four jurors that do not like me. enough alerts, surely that is not hard. the hides are inevitable, unless skinner and the others actually pay attention to any abuse of the system. i would hope that they would. understanding that it would be no more or less than majority rule, bullying. and we as progressive cannot allow bullying. surely. we must... stand up for our minority sistahs.... wink.

121. Looking over your hidden posts

Some of them are absolutely ridiculous. I don't know if you are being targeted or if jurors are making no effort whatsoever to evaluate what is being said. Either way silencing you for any period of time does not help this board at all.

102. I too would like to know

How does one know if they have had a post juried or hidden? Still too new here to know all the ins and outs and I would prefer to know immediately if I am saying something that is too objectionable, as that is never my intent here. I didn't know what the yellow stripe meant...was afraid to open in case it was an ad or something. Now I know to open and read them.

85. You and me both!

Yeah, I care a lot! What if I'm prevented from mouthing off? How can I continue maintaining my status as a truly Insufferable Bloviating Schmuckette?

Dayum...

I'd only be a troll on some CONservative site, but that's really not possible because I don't think I could stomach being on one of those, even for a few moments. I don't know how the folks here do it - who voluntarily go over to the freeper sites to be our eyes and ears for us. They've got a lot more fortitude than I ever could imagine having!

24. I'm sure there are very few people who will be affected by

this at all. Those who regularly get posts and replies hidden have a simple solution to avoid this in the future. For those few, maybe a few days off from posting until they have fewer than 5 hidden posts will be enough to change whatever habits they have that cause their posts to be hidden.

44. I'm glad to hear it.

For the most part, DU is polite, even when people disagree. That's not always the case, and there are a few people who can't resist ugly comments about people, but they're few enough to simply ignore, either using the forum's Ignore function or the old fashioned way.

108. I don't believe that 0 visible transparency pages is great for DU because I don't believe there is

any evidence that a reduction in hides means DUers are acting more civilly towards each other. The only thing fewer hides means is that fewer jurors are hiding posts. That's it. It could just as easily mean that DUers have a higher tolerance for treating each other like crap.

40. You don't have any

Click on your profile (looks like an old rolodex card next to your post count at the top of any post or at the top of the page on the right next to your username (My Profile).

Then click on the (explain) next to the chance of serving on juries and it will tell you how many hidden posts you have.

If you ever get a post hidden you will also get a message in your in box letting you know which post was hidden and why.

After clicking on your profile you can also click on the Transparency Tab at the top under your bolded user name. If it's grayed out you have fewer than five hidden posts if it's yellow you have five or more and you're in trouble and everyone can access it. You can click on the grayed out tab and it will say it's not displayed. But, because it's your page you can click on the "Show me my transparency page" link and any hidden posts and other information will be displayed.

99. Life in the future or How did i get five posts hidden?

(Like other DUers have said here, I too thought I had somehow gotten myself into hot water).

Dear DU Admin:
There is NO WAY that I could have written 5 posts worthy of being hidden overnight, I've never even had one post hidden! The only explanation for my having five hidden posts in one night must be due to the fact that you can now read my thoughts and are predicting posts I may post in the future.

I applaud this new telepathic upgrade to your servers, I am comforted in the knowing that DU's days plagued by covert energy industry shills, CATO Institute provocateurs and those who believe the good Earth to be round like a pizza have come to an end!

Ah, what a pleasant DU we must now have! DUers who secretly believe a woman's place is in the home, gone! Members who want everyone to own a gun or three and yet whose own God given 'gun' has more width than length GONE!! Posters who think to persuade their fellow DUers that Ron/Rand Paul actually read and understood the US Constitution GONE!!1! Those annoying Karl Rove plants, (aka 'Fart Petals'), GONE GONE GONE!!!

I assure you I've no such secret agenda, I swear that in my heart of hearts I know Alex Jones to be a fraud...what possible reason could the new DU Thought Police have had to temporarily block my posting privileges????? More importantly what about my right to be safe and secure in my own skull, shouldn't the robbing of one's very thoughts without a warrant be a no-no?

Tell you what, I promise that unless Senator Sanders changes his affiliation to Team Democrat I will not vote for him in the next Presidential race and I swear that I will try to curb any anxious thoughts I may have should a woman other than Elizabeth Warren get that nomination. Sooooo can I have my posting privileges reinstated?

130. Yeah, this...

Dear DU Admin:
There is NO WAY that I could have written 5 posts worthy of being hidden overnight, I've never even had one post hidden! The only explanation for my having five hidden posts in one night must be due to the fact that you can now read my thoughts

Because the only other thing I could think of, short of being the butt of my Evil Twin's sick joke, was that 20+ jurors had somehow gained the ability to read minds and saw me thinking about another poster, "What a wanker!" but not actually posting it.

122. Yeah yeah, five hidden posts.

I can't tell you how many people I've bull dozed in my life and those were family members. To be honest there were 9 kids. Sink or swim.
I don't mind the jury system, but someone actually called me a troll. I call it projection.
What kind of left-wing, tree hugging, feminist is a troll? Or rather, what kind of troll?

134. Thanx for all you work Skinner

138. Very Sorry, But I Don't Know What This Is

all about or how to go about fixing this. I haven't posted as much as I did in previous years, but did contribute money so I could keep my star. I'm not sure what the Transparency page is. Is this the page that shows where & when I've posted in the past? I thought the posts would automatically be deleted after a certain length of time. I haven't cleared out my posts, but have tried to clear quite a few out and I can't delete them.

Could you explain further. I feel kind of stupid here, but just haven't kept up with everything here at DU. I thought if you contributed money that you would be able to start threads and post at them all too.

Sorry for having to ask. But thank you if you can explain a little further.